Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne stump for Edwards

PORTSMOUTH — Wooing 700 voters at the Frank Jones Center on Wednesday, presidential candidate John Edwards pitched his plans for health care, warfare and education with a live rock 'n' roll sound track, a whiff of Hollywood and an endorsement from a local nuclear submarine welder.

PORTSMOUTH — Wooing 700 voters at the Frank Jones Center on Wednesday, presidential candidate John Edwards pitched his plans for health care, warfare and education with a live rock 'n' roll sound track, a whiff of Hollywood and an endorsement from a local nuclear submarine welder.

Wrapping their endorsements for Edwards around a four-song set, Grammy-winning musicians Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne were introduced by actor Peter Coyote. Raitt sang a different tune than 36 years ago when she famously covered Sippie Wallace's "Women Be Wise," with its chorus of "don't advertise your man."

On Day 2 of a campaign tour around the state stumping for Edwards, Raitt was very much advertising the man she described as the "president for all of America."

"I hope this will put a little hitch in your getalong and get you out to the polls for John Edwards," she said before launching into John Hiatt's "Thing Called Love."

Browne harmonized and Raitt played slide guitar, while 20 Edwards supporters behind them waved signs with his name.

Edwards followed by telling voters he opposes the building of any new coal-fired or nuclear power plants, that he would deliver health care for all Americans and pull all troops out of Iraq within his first year as president.

The candidate said money is "a corrupting power in politics," that he would fine polluters and use the money from the fines to fund alternative energy research.

"We need a president to say to Americans that it's time to be patriotic about something other than war," he said.

While locals waited for the headliners, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard welder John Joyal took center stage for a half-hour to offer his own political views, to take credit for getting various officials elected into office and to endorse Edwards for his commitment to labor unions.

"If you look real close, you can tell the ones who blow smoke where the sun don't shine," Joyal said of the field of presidential candidates. "Edwards is the real deal. He looks you in the eye."

During a question and answer session following Edwards' talk, Dana Dunnan of Greenland asked the candidate about political change.

"I've been winning this fight my entire life," said Edwards. "I was born for this fight."

A woman who identified herself as Margaret from Kittery Point, Maine, told the candidate she hails from New Orleans and asked what he would do to repair the storm-ravaged city.

"We didn't need a surge in Baghdad; we needed a surge in New Orleans," said Edwards, adding the city needs to be made safe, new levees built and police officers replaced.

Mark Klein of New Castle asked about political contributions.

"I agreed to take public financing during the primary season," said Edwards, "but I have never taken a dime from a Washington lobbyist or a special interest group."

Jan Williams of Stratham asked Edwards about his "plan for Iraq" and the candidate promised the immediate withdrawal of 50,000 troops, all troops out within the first year of his presidency and an end to all combat missions.

Telling the voters a woman once told him she didn't vote for him because he didn't ask her to, Edwards concluded by asking all those in attendance for their votes.